U.S. Premature Birth Rate Worse Than Africa

If this isn't argument for health care reform then I don't know what is. This is a shocking outrage. I hope Democrats will cite this statistic in arguing for the public option. And these numbers further prove that we've become a third world nation:

"Around the world about one in 10 babies are born prematurely each year, and more than one-quarter of the deaths that occur in the month after birth are the consequence of preterm birth.

Those are among the findings of a new study of the burden of preterm birth by the World Health Organization and the charitable organization March of Dimes.

[...]In all, about 12.9 million babies are born too early each year, representing 9.6 percent of births. Of 4 million deaths that occur soon after birth, 28 percent are attributable to prematurity.

[...]Africa has the highest rate (11.9 percent), followed by North America (10.6 percent) and Asia (9.1 percent). Latin America and the Caribbean are mid-range (8.1 percent) and Australia and New Zealand (6.4 percent) and Europe (6.2 percent) are the lowest.

[...]in the United States, where the rate of preterm birth has increased 36 percent in the last quarter-century. It now stands at 12.7 percent; the North American rate is brought down by Canada's 8.2 percent rate)."

And you want to know another reason for America being a third world nation?:

There are 30 million Americans who are functionally illiterate, which means they cannot read well enough to function effectively, according to a federal survey.

"There are 40 percent of our nation's fourth graders who are not reading at basic level," says Emily Kirkpatrick of the National Center for Family Literacy. "Many of those fourth graders are children of the 30 million who cannot read at the basic level."

Often, children just give up as they fall behind, according to Kirkpatrick.

- Discuss why we need health care reform.